Saturday, July 1, 2017

ELOITERON - Lost Paradise (1981, Switzerland)

Eloiteron's sole album is probably fairly typical for 1980, being a sort-of progressive release, but with shorter, more straightforward material, although, interestingly, most of it's instrumental (thankfully - the vocals aren't very good...). Some of the tracks are more adventurous than others, with Homage À 'M' having a particularly good part before sliding back into a rather standard chord sequence. One oddity on the album is the (real) solo trumpet, which is most unusual in the genre, and is one of the things, along with the excellent piano work, that lifts this above the mundanity to which it sometimes aspires.

Martin and Christian Frey both play the 'Tron, apparently, but do no more than add choirs to a few tracks, sometimes more overtly than others (Octopus has a nice part), until you get to the album's longest track, closer Old Man's Voice, with a beautiful string part, although I'm fairly certain the flute section on the intro is a double-tracked real one. String synth on a few tracks, but where you can hear it properly (Octopus again), it quite clearly isn't 'Tron.

So; you're not going to find this easily, to say the least, and it probably isn't the most scintillating Mellotron use ever, although should you run into a copy for sensible money, it's probably worth the effort.

They are a keyboard lover's band, including lots of mellotron. The '70s prog influences are there, especially in the Steve Hackett inspired guitar work. The closest comparison is another Swiss band, Flame Dream.

New territory is covered in more dissonant guitar sounds, and solo trumpet. There is also flute, strings and grand piano.

"Lost Paradise" is the band's only release. Shorter songs, and slick production are indicative of the times. The focus is on the instrumentals, rather than vocals (by all accounts, this is a good thing).

If you are a fan of the mellotron, or interested in late '70s / early '80s Swiss symphonic movement, this is a band you may want to seek out.

"Time Reflection" opens with a nice little keyboard melody while the organ plays along. The organ takes the lead and then the sax before we get flooded out by the mellotron. The drums start to build as the organ joins in,and then it's back to the original melody. Good song. "Once" begins with a catchy melody of piano, drums and flute. Things pick up a notch 2 minutes in,as the tempo continues to change. Guitar 3 minutes in as horns come and go. "Fantasia" features some beautiful piano melodies until the horns arrive a minute in as the song speeds up. More sparkling piano as guitar and flute follows. "Where" opens with guitar as we get vocals for the first time. They are poor on this song, kind of shaky with light drums and flute. Guitar returns with mellotron as organ and piano follow. The vocals really ruin this one.

"Yapituttiperslikkenbers" is led by sax and drums until piano takes over. Check out the bass lines ! Sax returns before 3 minutes. "Hommage A M..." opens with flute, acoustic guitar and mellotron. Piano comes in and bass. Mellotron comes and goes and the tempo changes often. "Octopus" is my favourite song here. I love the piano that reminds me of Kevin Moore. After 2 minutes some good guitar with drums. Mellotron on this one as well. "Tree Of Conflict" opens piano and organ before strummed guitar comes in.The vocals are better on this one but average at best. The mellotron waves are fantastic though and plentiful. "Old Man's Voice" opens with flute before piano takes over. Drums arrive 2 1/2 minutes in as we get a full sound.The tempo picks up as flute, piano and guitar take turns leading the way. Much better than average early 80s symphonic album. There were many of these type of private progressive rock albums released in Germany and Switzerland during this period and Eloiteron are one of the best. Trumpet adds a nice touch, and recalls the Austrian group Klockwerk Orange in a similar setting. Plenty of excellent organ, mellotron, guitar, piano, synthesizers, and flute as well. I appreciate the strong attention to melodic detail. It's primarily instrumental, though there's some sparse unobtrusive vocals that are decent. Recommended album.